Emotion's Modulation of Attention and Memory: Effects of Aging

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The abilities of an individual to attend selectively to important information and to successfully learn and remember new facts are influenced by emotional factors and change over the lifespan. With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Kensinger's research will combine behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging approaches to investigate the ways in which emotion influences attention and memory, how those influences change across the adult lifespan, and how individual differences in cognitive ability or trait anxiety influence interactions between emotional and cognitive processes. Previous research has demonstrated that emotionally charged items are more likely to attract attention than are emotionally neutral items. However this increased salience imposes a cost: people are less likely to process and remember neutral stimuli that occur at the same time as or just after an emotionally charged item. Dr. Kensinger's project will examine a number of unanswered questions regarding the cognitive and neural processes that lead to such effects of emotion on attention and memory. In particular, the research will address the following questions: What range of emotional stimuli elicits attentional effects? What are the neural mechanisms through which emotion influences attention? Are the effects of emotion on attention and memory consistent across the adult lifespan? To what extent can individuals "override" or overcome the focus on emotional information? What neural processes allow such an override to occur? And, what cognitive capacities or affective qualities allow an individual to respond flexibly within an emotional environment? By refining our understanding of the mechanisms through which emotion influences attention and memory, the results from this project may increase understanding of the attentional biases and memory changes observed in affective disorders such as panic disorder, anxiety disorder, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This project will also facilitate the establishment of a Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience laboratory at Boston College, providing research training and mentoring for undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows. Ties to the Affective Science Center at Boston College will further facilitate the wide dissemination of this project's research findings to the broader scientific community and to the general public.